Gators Triumph as WCAL Champs

By Terry Bernal - Daily Journal Staff
SHP 12, St. Ignatius 5
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Welcome to the age of the Sacred Heart Prep Gators on the West Catholic Athletic League boys’ lacrosse scene.

For years, the WCAL had traditionally been dominated by St. Ignatius. Friday’s boys’ lacrosse championship game saw a changing of the guards, though, as SHP dominated the final three quarters of play to celebrate a WCAL championship — in the program’s first year in the league — with a 12-5 victory over St. Ignatius at Palatella Field in Atherton.

In his fifth year as SHP’s head coach, Chris Rotelli has now led his team to dominance through three different leagues. In 2014 and ’15, the Gators won the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League championship, then two titles in the Peninsula Athletic League in ’16 and ’17.

Is championship No. 5 the start of a new WCAL dynasty?

“Time will tell,” Rotelli said. “But the plan is to keep getting better. We tell the guys, try to get better every day. And I think we’ve done that for the past five years. But to beat S.I., they’ve never not won this league, and this is our first year in the league. To win the regular season and the tournament, it’s incredible. I don’t really know how to put it into words.”

The two teams met April 26 in the regular season, with St. Ignatius earning a back-and-forth 7-6 overtime win. The goal for goal battle continued into the first quarter of Friday’s championship showdown, with the Wildcats taking a 3-2 lead into the second quarter.

Then the Gators erupted, closing out the first half with six unanswered goals. SHP went on to eight straight goals before St. Ignatius broke the streak with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

“We were pretty frustrated with the way that first game turned out because we didn’t think we played the best,” SHP sophomore Wilson Weisel said. “So, we came out, we knew what we wanted to do, and we executed. We worked together and put out as much as we could.”

There was a major addition to the SHP lineup this time around as senior forward Jack Crockett returned to action.

Having been injured since the Gators’ fourth game of the season, Crockett not only returned to action Wednesday for SHP’s 8-6 win over Bellarmine in the WCAL semifinals, it was the first lacrosse action of any kind Crockett has seen since the March 17 non-league match against Redwood-Larkspur.

Junior forward Tommy Barnds — who moved up from midfield to take over Crockett’s position following the injury — paced SHP with a match-high five goals. Weisel added a hat trick, including the go-ahead score with 7:22 remaining in the first half. Crockett scored just one goal on the day, but drew a foul with a gutsy run into the zone of St. Ignatius goalkeeper Mac Gates, with a triple-team of defenders converging.

“He’s crazy,” Weisel said. “He just went all-out on the play and laid himself out there. Yeah, he drew the penalty. He was making plays the whole game long. It’s crazy what he was doing out there.”

Crockett drew the foul. And seconds after play resumed, Barnds found Weisel with the assist for a catch-and-fire goal 10 feet off the left post to give the Gators a 4-3 lead.

Midfielder Joey Dahlkemper dominated on face-offs from there, keeping SHP on the offensive throughout the quarter. And the Gators scorers responded with tight, rhythmic passing and disciplined poise to find the right shot. And when they had to, the Gators made it a physical game, especially on the following goal to give SHP its first two-goal advantage over St. Ignatius all season.

The Gators took a 5-3 lead with 5:35 remaining in the half on Crockett’s only goal of the game. On the play, the senior curled around the left post and tried to set his footing for a whip shot. St. Ignatius defender James Gilfillan was right there though, and put a stick into Crockett, knocking him backward just before he released the ball. As he was falling to the ground, though, Crockett still released the ball and somehow got enough on it to score the goal.

“Then I just got some contact on my back and, as I was falling, I just shot it and it just went,” Crockett said.

The Gators scored three more goals prior to halftime, from three different players, with Bards, Weisel and Larry Hart each exploiting looks off the left side.

“Today we were just working all around,” Crockett said. “[Weisel] had goals, [Hart] had goals, [Barnds] was scoring, Sonsini was scoring. Our whole team was involved today. And it was just a complete team play today.”
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Sacred Heart Schools Atherton

Sacred Heart Schools, Atherton

150 Valparaiso Ave
Atherton, CA 94027
650 322 1866
Founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart, SHS is a Catholic, independent, co-ed day school for students in preschool through grade 12